


Nine Years

by kada



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-31
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-27 17:11:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1718240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kada/pseuds/kada
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes years for Damian Wayne to accidentally admit his feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nine Years

**Author's Note:**

> I need to edit this later! And if anyone wants to be a beta, hit me up.
> 
> Damian starts off young, but the smut will come when he's older. I can't bring myself to take this account's virginity with underage porn, so. That will be later.

It wasn’t when Grayson was shirtless, sweaty and covered in bandages. It wasn’t even the day when Damian walked in on him changing—underwear being pulled up over his thighs and all. And it wasn’t the time Grayson made dinner nice—not made _dinner_ but made dinner acceptable to _look_ at. Eating it was another story.  
  
It was the day Grayson dumped a bowl of cereal into his lap as he nodded off at the table. Damian watches as the bowl empties itself over his knees, jolting Dick awake enough to somehow catch the falling dish before it hits the floor and makes the mess even worse.  
  
“Crap,” the first word of the day, the one that steals Damian’s heart. He’s only fifteen, so it doesn’t register at first—a slow blink at the strange sensation; he’s then leaning over the counter with a raised eyebrow. He’s not sure if Grayson’s catch was graceful enough to make up for the original fumble.  
  
That was the very morning that Damian Wayne fell in love with Dick Grayson.

* * *

It wasn’t until two months later that he actually realised it. Those before mentioned events—shirtless Grayson, for example—suddenly didn’t just seem so innocuous anymore. His rapid heartbeat, the heaviness in his stomach and the strange way his body heated up at sights like that only left him momentarily confused.  
  
He wasn’t an idiot. At first it may have been a cold, but the longer it went on the more he realised that those symptoms are related to Grayson. He decided to test the theory; stare at a book full of harlots, gauge his reaction. Stare at Grayson, gauge his reaction.  
  
His heart liked the results, but his mind was another story.  
  
Grayson was off-limits. There’s a myriad of reasons why, but there’s only one that matters; Damian can’t lose him. Any course of action aside from just ignoring it put his relationship in jeopardy, or so he thinks. It’s what makes sense to a hormonal fifteen year old. He makes it awkward, Grayson makes it out of there ASAP.

* * *

For four and a half years, Damian’s managed to keep it to himself.  He’s not sure how, but he’s done it—his relationship is still secure, if not painful. It hurts to see his Grayson with others, it hurts even worse to know how intimate he’s been with them. It hurts Damian to see him in pain every time, and it’s especially biting when he just smiles it away.  
  
But nothing is as bad as realising that he’s not _his_ Grayson.  In a way, he is. An older brother, a mentor, a friend. One of the few people Damian respects and admires enough to place him on an unseen pedestal. In that way, he does belong to Damian; unfortunately, it’s not enough.  
  
“Robin. You spacing out?”  
  
He was, but his head whips around, face twisted in a scowl behind his mask. It’s be hard for normal people to see, but Grayson knows. He’s always been able to read Damian, better than anyone else in the world.  
  
“Of course not. I just appreciate the _quiet_ ,” Damian pulls his hood up at that, returning his gaze to the scene below. “have you learned the meaning of the word yet?”  
  
The only response is a soft chuckle across his headset and it sends a warm flush down his body.

* * *

Damian is twenty-two when he accidentally says it.  
  
“I love you, you fool,” there’s a moment where they’re both silent, letting the words sink in. Damian quickly realises that he’s done, it’s over. He slipped on the ice and is falling head first into the sea of loneliness beneath him. At the very least, he can try to make it so that he ends up feet first. “I have for a long time. Even before you started dating that crude woman—Melody? Melanie?”  
  
“Melody, yeah, but Damian that’s not really—“  
  
The point? There wasn’t a point anymore. Damian could see everything he’s ever needed in his life slipping away. The care and attention from someone he respected, even if it was to stay platonic. He needed Grayson, and fears from his teenage years were still rooted within him. There was no experience in this kind of thing for Damian—despite knowing Grayson better than anyone else in the world, save for maybe Babs and Pennyworth and definitely not Drake, he felt as if everything he knew was coming to an end.  
  
All because of someone breaking Grayson’s heart yet again. Damian hated the woman on principle.  
  
“Just… I…” he’s quickly losing steam. “I’m leaving. We’ll talk later.”


End file.
